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The City in the Mirror     

Although distinct, the development of metrical megaliths and the emergence of cities inhabit common ground.

In shape, position and alignment many archaic cities reflect astral or divine prototypes.  Equally common is the belief in the city’s inverse  counterpart in the underworld.  Bab-iliani (Babylon) was the ‘Gate of the Gods’ and Nineveh derives its form from the Ursa Major Constellation.  In symbolising its whole exceeding the sum of its parts the city becomes self-conscious.

In 2008 the confluence of Culture Capitol status and a Biennial had isolated a patch of waste ground central to the ‘creative’ Jamaica Street area of Liverpool.  Disappointed, I undertook a ritual survey to diagnose and address the regeneration resistance of this site.

In 1070 AD, having faithfully administered Normandy during William’s conquest of England, Hugh Lupus (wolf) was rewarded with Cheshire.  The descendents of this ‘Great Hunter’ (Gros Veneur)  have been in residence ever since.   The Grosvenor property and development group is born of this pedigree.  Having overlooked the 1% for Art scheme in their £800,000,000 L 1 Development, I was obliged to act on their behalf. Contriving a heraldic livery on the hi-vis ritual regalia of a surveyor, I enobled myself as a representative of Norman Hunter Land Holdings.

Invoking the stellar foundation of the great Babylonian cities I deployed specialised ritual instruments to arrange seven light emitting units on the site in the proportional positions of the constellation of Orion (the great hunter).

Site notices were positioned on bordering lampposts informing the public of the proposal to erect a Panopticon control tower from which the celestial re- alignment of Liverpool would be directed.  The views over the site from the Novas Gallery windows were also claimed as art with the appropriate counterfeit labels.

The legendary Orion was killed by the gods to halt his voracious predatory prowess.  It is unclear whether his terrestrial namesake has heeded this caution.  However, the site has since been spontaneously regenerated by indigenous youths who have installed an elaborate system of concrete BMX ramps.

Although the results of the survey are inconclusive it would appear to have stimulated some remedial activity.

Examining the co-evolution of instrumental optics and the built environment reveals that the experience of vista and intimacy are accentuated rather than negated in their contest.  It is the flux between such polarities that animates urban space.

James Loftus  2009

 

For More information on James Loftus and his work visit  www.scopotrope.com

 

 

 

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